There has been already proposed an vehicle occupant protecting apparatus which expands a bag, which is housed between a front pillar portion and a roof side rail portion in a folded manner along a window glass in a curtain manner, so as to improve a protecting performance for a head portion of the vehicle occupant at a time when a predetermined high load is applied to the side portion of the vehicle body. A structure shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-227340 which discloses an vehicle occupant protecting apparatus of this kind will be described below.
As shown in FIG. 55, an vehicle occupant protecting apparatus 700 is mainly structured by a sensor 702 for detecting a predetermined state of application of high load to a side portion of a vehicle body, an inflator 704 operated by the high load application state detected by the sensor 702 and injecting a gas, and an elongated bag 712 arranged from an upper end portion of a front pillar 706 along a roof side rail 708 and housed within a pillar garnish 710 of the front pillar 706 in a folded state. A front end portion of the bag 712 is connected to an upper end portion of the inflator 704, and a rear end portion of the bag 712 is positioned at a front portion of a center pillar 714.
In accordance with the structure described above, when a side collision is detected by the sensor 702, the inflator 704 is operated so as to inject the gas. Accordingly, the injected gas is supplied to the interior of the bag 712, and the pillar garnish 710 unfolds due to the an expanding pressure of the bag 712. As a result, the bag 712 which is expanding in a curtain manner is interposed between the head portion of the vehicle occupant and the side surface of the vehicle cabin.
However, in the case of the vehicle occupant protecting apparatus 700 mentioned above, there is the possibility that at a time when the bag 712 expands, the pillar garnish 710 of the front pillar 706 may break and be scattered, or the pillar garnish 710 may separate from the front pillar 706 and scatter.
The present invention has been made by taking the facts mentioned above into consideration, and an object of the present invention is to provide a structure of arranging an vehicle occupant protecting apparatus for an automotive vehicle which can prevent a pillar garnish of a pillar portion from scattering at a time when a bag is expanded.